Coca-Cola said today that Care USA Chief Executive Officer
Helene Gayle, 57, will stand for election in April. She would be
one of three women and three blacks on a board that includes an
Hispanic and will have an average age of 66 if she is elected.
In 2007, shareholders elected a board made up of 10 men -- one
black -- and one woman, with an average age of 68.

“Helene brings a global mindset and a deep understanding
of health and humanitarian issues to our Company,” Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer Muhtar Kent said in a statement. “Her
expertise and insight will be invaluable as we continue to
expand our global initiatives around sustainability and women.”

Gayle’s nomination comes as U.S. companies continue to make
“glacial progress” in efforts to boost female representation
in corporate suites and boardrooms, according to a December
report by Catalyst, a non-profit researcher based in New York
that studies women and business. Women held 14.3 percent of
executive positions at Fortune 500 companies as of June 30 and
16.6 percent of board seats.

Gayle spent 20 years with the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention in Atlanta, working mostly on HIV/AIDS
initiatives, Coca-Cola said today in a statement. Care USA, also
based in Atlanta, is a global humanitarian non-profit with anti-poverty programs in 84 countries reaching 122 million people.

Board Retirements

Coke’s board also will get younger with the retirement in
April of two longtime directors, Don Keough, 86, and Jimmy
Williams, 79. Keough served two stints as a Coke director,
starting in 1981. Williams, a former chairman and chief
executive officer of SunTrust Banks Inc., has served as a
director since 1979.

In 2010, Kent pledged to add 5 million women entrepreneurs
to its global distribution network by 2020 through business
skills training, financial services and mentoring. Kent also
leads a Women’s Leadership Council of 17 female executives who
identify ways to recruit and retain women senior executives.

Catalyst’s research indicates growth in female corporate
leadership has stalled, even with Marissa Mayer’s rise to the
top job at Yahoo! Inc. and Sheryl Sandberg’s board-seat victory
at Facebook Inc. Less than a fifth of the Fortune 500 had 25
percent or more board seats filled by women, while more than a
quarter had zero women in executive roles, Catalyst data show.

White Men

Come April, women will make up 19 percent of Atlanta-based
Coca-Cola’s directors. This diversity hasn’t come at the expense
of white men. Instead, the board will have expanded from 11
members in 2007 to 16 after the April election. Twelve members
will be white men, three more than in 2007.

The expansion also has done little to make the board more
international, even though about 80 percent of the company’s
profit comes from outside the U.S. Besides Kent, who is of
Turkish descent, the board includes a Swede, Jacob Wallenberg.

Coca-Cola Director Alexis Herman, a former U.S. Labor
Secretary, joined in October 2007 after leading a Coca-Cola task
force from 2001 until 2006 that evaluated pay and promotion
practices for minorities. The task force was part of a $192.5
million settlement of a racial-discrimination lawsuit by 2,200
employees.

Maria Elena Lagomasino, who is Hispanic, joined the board
more than four years ago while Donald McHenry, who is black, has
been a director for 32 years.